What is the worst ever finale for a TV series?

ryan foreman wrote:

This goes back a ways. The finale of Twin Peaks was really bad. Remember, basically the whole point of Twin Peaks was as a build up to a climactic finale. The series as a whole really was good, if not great. In that context, the finale was shockingly lame. It was certainly worst than Seinfeld.

I was wondering if anyone would bring up Twin Peaks. If this thread had been posted twenty years ago, I think the TP finale would have easily won (lost?) the poll. Anyway, yeah, it was bad, especially in contrast to the rest of the series. At least the episode that concluded the Laura Palmer plot was some of the best television ever.

There was a finale to that series? It seems like they series just suffered a long, slow gradual death. I was very much into that show for about 4 years. Then at a certain point I realized how stupid the whole series had become. It wasn't that the quality of the shows went down. It was just that nothing was ever resolved. Basically the very thing that made it appealing eventually made it unwatchable.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

The X-Files. I was obsessed with that show, so I had some high standards. It went downhill after David Duchovny left. He came back for the finale, but I honestly don't remember much about that episode other than the alien baby that was an anticlimactic resolution for years of sexual tension between Mulder and Scully. Don't even get me started on the second X-Files movie with Amanda Peet.

My Name Is Earl - writers and actors had no idea the show was going to be pulled, completely ends with a "next time on My Name Is Earl" feel

Very disappointing

Dexter was fairly terrible, and may have only been saved from seeming utterly awful only by its having come at the end of a poorly written crap of a season.

Overall though, from good-series-to-bad-ending, nothing beats Seinfeld. To cap off a great series like that with a contrived clip show was garbage. And WTF with people knocking the Breaking Bad finale? What the heck do you people want?

Dinosaurs.

A family member helps bring about the ice age and they all just wait to die while the camera pans out and credits start to roll.

Most depressing ending ever.

Why are you thankful? What did you do with the extra hour each week you saved by not watching Lost or Breaking Bad? Run an extra 10 miles each week and get stupid fast?

Boy Meets World. I didn't even watch the finale, because it jumped the shark when Corey and Topanga got married, but I'm sure it sucked.

Haha YO (super Hardloper) wrote:

Why are you thankful? What did you do with the extra hour each week you saved by not watching Lost or Breaking Bad? Run an extra 10 miles each week and get stupid fast?

Just did some quick research.

There have been 62 episodes of breaking bad and 121 episodes of lost. That's 183 hours total w/ commercials.

183 hours / 24 hours = 7 days and 15 hours

Why am I thankful? Well, I didn't throw away over one week of my life watching two dismal TV programs. What did I do with the extra time? Anything done was more constructive than watching those programs.

My Mother the Car.

Eugene the Ex-Drinking Machine wrote:

Why am I thankful? Well, I didn't throw away over one week of my life watching two dismal TV programs. What did I do with the extra time? Anything done was more constructive than watching those programs.

Like what?

The last episode of the penultimate season of "Dexter" was so dreadful that I didn't watch any part of the final season. It had been a great show, but that episode wiped out any reason for their to even BE another season.

Smurfs .. they were lost in time for about 8 episodes in a row. Then, a few weeks of re-runs over winter break, then nothing. The show just ended. Smurfs never got home, there was no closure. Just utterly disappointing

another vote for St Elsewhere which was a great show.

Got some extra volunteer time in after my studies during college.

Consider This wrote:

Eugene the Ex-Drinking Machine wrote:

Why am I thankful? Well, I didn't throw away over one week of my life watching two dismal TV programs. What did I do with the extra time? Anything done was more constructive than watching those programs.

Like what?

adesso wrote:

ryan foreman wrote:

This goes back a ways. The finale of Twin Peaks was really bad. Remember, basically the whole point of Twin Peaks was as a build up to a climactic finale. The series as a whole really was good, if not great. In that context, the finale was shockingly lame. It was certainly worst than Seinfeld.

I was wondering if anyone would bring up Twin Peaks. If this thread had been posted twenty years ago, I think the TP finale would have easily won (lost?) the poll. Anyway, yeah, it was bad, especially in contrast to the rest of the series. At least the episode that concluded the Laura Palmer plot was some of the best television ever.

Weren't they expecting another season? I think the show was shelved and then canceled. That's why he made "Fire Walk With Me" to tie up loose ends. So it is hard to call the finale a true one. I thought the second season was hit and miss. James should have disappeared earlier.

mnie wrote:

My Name Is Earl - writers and actors had no idea the show was going to be pulled, completely ends with a "next time on My Name Is Earl" feel

Very disappointing

They had no idea? Seriously? The viewing public had an idea. That show "Boned the Fish" after season one.

My vote is for Cheers finale. I didn't like it. Turning off the light. Come on!

Dexter was awful but I haven't seen lost

Awake. Looks like the writers left for lunch on the last day and didn't come back.

Starbuck wrote:

I guess no-one here watched Battlestar Galactica then.

Lost and Breaking Bad were both decent I thought.

I watched - and loved - BSG. When it first aired, I hated the finale. Later, having thought about it, I realized just how frakkin brilliant it was. I now regard it as, perhaps, the best finale to a series ever.